Zürcher Nachrichten - North Korea's Kim shuns South but could 'get along' with US

Washington and Seoul have mounted a renewed push for high-level talks with reclusive North Korea, eyeing a potential summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in China later this year.

Having largely ignored these overtures for months, Kim finally staked his position as thousands gathered in Pyongyang for a rare congress of the ruling Workers' Party.

If Washington "respects our country's current (nuclear) status... and withdraws its hostile policy... there is no reason why we cannot get along well with the United States," Kim said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The United States has for decades led efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme -- but summits, sanctions and diplomatic pressure have had little impact.

The last summit between Kim and Trump in 2019 unravelled as the leaders argued over sanctions relief and what nuclear concessions North Korea might make in return.

Trump is slated to travel to China -- North Korea's longtime ally -- in late March through early April.

Speculation is mounting he may seek to meet with Kim on the sidelines of this trip.

A Trump-Kim meeting would be a major breakthrough after years of deadlocked diplomacy.

Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was "100 percent" open to a meeting.

He even bucked long-held US policy by conceding that North Korea was already "sort of a nuclear power".

North Korea's economy has for years languished under heavy Western sanctions that aim to choke off funding for its nuclear weapons programme.

- 'Leave us alone' -

Held just once every five years, the Workers' Party congress offers a rare glimpse into the workings of a nation where even mundane details are shrouded in secrecy.

Speaking as the days-long political spectacle drew to a close, Kim took a far more combative tone on South Korea.

Seoul's recent efforts to lower the temperature with North Korea were a "clumsy deceptive farce and a poor work", Kim said.

North Korea has "absolutely no business dealing with South Korea, its most hostile entity, and will permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots", Kim said.

"As long as South Korea cannot escape the geopolitical conditions of having a border with us, the only way to live safely is to give up everything related to us and leave us alone."

In response, Seoul vowed to keep working for peaceful coexistence.

"To achieve this, the two Koreas must refrain from hostile and confrontational words and actions and build a foundation of mutual respect and trust," the government said in a statement.

North Korea's latest announcements reflect the view that "South Korea's continued insistence on North Korea's denuclearisation -- directed at the US and the international community -- fundamentally infringes on Pyongyang's national interests," said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Kim's remarks "signal an intention to pursue relations with the US independently, without going through South Korea," Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

He was also making clear that he will "reject any negotiations premised on denuclearisation", Yang added.

The congress ended as thousands of soldiers marched through Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square in a grand military parade.

Kim and his daughter Ju Ae donned matching leather jackets as they watched the procession, fuelling speculation the teenager is being groomed for power.

"What we're seeing looks like deliberate image politics -- projecting her as a potential inheritor of her father’s authority," said Kyungnam University professor Lim Eul-chul.

Pyongyang said a range of military units took part in the event, including troops who aided Russia's war effort in Ukraine and those stationed near the inter-Korean border.

O.Hofer--NZN